I will explain why this book is getting a five-star rating. Authors of color- especially trans authors of color- are not allowed to write messy/unlikable characters without being ripped to shreds. Authors of color are held to a higher standard than white authors. If we’re not telling stories about our trauma, you want us to be telling happy stories about these perfect, put-together human beings. That is completely unfair. We should be able to tell any stories we want. I find it extremely funny that Naomi Kanakia has been harassed and attacked over a novel discussing messily figuring yourself out. If she was a white trans woman she would be worshipped. How do I know? The same people attacking Kanakia are the ones still recommending Meredith Russo’s books even though Russo (a white trans woman) is a known abuser of her wife and kids. Your internalized biases stem back to how deeply rooted racism is in every aspect of our lives! WE ARE TOTALLY NORMAL was exquisitely written!! The conversations about queer identity, toxic friendships, alcoholism, sex, etc, are such vital discussions teen readers need to see in literature. If you go into this novel knowing it is messy and you aren’t supposed to like any of these people/what they believe in, you’ll get much more out of it. I think many of you wanted an ending where Nandan specifically states that his internalized queerphobia/misogyny/etc has gone away and he will actively work towards keeping it that way. Sorry to disappoint you, but that’s not how progress works. When you’re fighting internalized battles it takes more than 288 pages to understand you’re in the wrong and you need help to correct yourself. Kanakia implies with her ending that Nandan sees his mistakes and is going to be different moving forward. Not everything needs to be tied up in a perfect little bow. Also, the fact this book came out before Kanakia publicly came out as a trans woman really shows in the writing, which makes even more sense why transphobic people are spam reporting and low rating this novel. Nandan does read like a trans girl. This is obviously due to the fact Naomi was working out her own internalized battles and figuring out her own identity through these characters. There is nothing wrong with that. Yall are just transphobic and won’t allow authors of color to be messy.

TWs/CWs: Sexual content, homophobia/internalized homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia, alcohol/alcoholism, misogyny, outing, toxic relationship, toxic friendship, etc.